DELTA STATE GOVT TO REVIEW PARTNERSHIP WITH POLITICAL PARTIES NOT ON GROUND IN THE STATE

Registered political parties without standard offices in Delta state have been told to upgrade or have their partnership with the state government reviewed.

The Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Inter Party Relations, Honourable Efe Tobor, made the call at the end of a four day verification visit to political party offices in the state which revealed that only a few of the parties had good offices.

Honourable Efe noted that some of the political parties were being run as private businesses, thereby defeating the purpose of registering them, adding that the offices of some of the parties left much to be desired.

The SSA said the state government had remained consistent with the release of annual grants to the political parties to enable them address some of their pressing operational challenges, including office accommodation and wondered why some of them were creating the impression of insensitivity on the part of government.

Honourable Efe said it was the desire of government to give the political parties a sense of belonging and make them key players in the electoral process, but that most of the parties were not effectively contributing to the system because they did not have the conducive environment to do so.

The state secretary of the Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC), Ambassador Peters Emuakpoje, who joined the SSA on the verification exercise, said there was no reason why any registered political party in the state should not have a befitting office in view of the support they have been enjoying from the state government.

Ambassador Emuakpoje commended the SSA on Inter Party Relations for psinstakingly verifying the party offices to ascertain their presence and usefulness to the system, stressing that those not ready for their responsibilities should close shop.

The last batch of 27 political parties were verified on Thursday (yesterday), out of which only four had standard offices.

They are Peoples Redemption Party  (PRP), Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), Restoration Party (RP) and Social Democratic Party (SDP).

Those in category B are PPP, SPN, JMPP, UP, YPP, YES, NDCP and NGP.

In category C are PPC and SNP, while Peoples Trust, RAP, UPC, YDP, AAC, AGAP, ANN, ANP, LM, NFD, NIP and PDM are in category D.

The office of the All Progressives Congress (APC) could not be verified because it has two factions.